I guess I’m just an old fogey. We didn’t even hire coaches for athletic sports!
Our society has officially jumped the shark.
wow, just wow, not in our house that’s for sure!
You do realize there is money in playing video games. Some schools even have teams and scholarships.
And it’s not all fun and games. A good friend’s kid is finishing up Army boot camp this week. He’s going to be in their remote drone program. Just like a video game, which he did a lot of in HS. .
My relative was a great video player and now has drone flying as one of his duties at work. He enjoys it and is great at it. He also is great at robotics, EE and wearable tech.
He never had a coach nor to my knowledge coached anyone.
TIL there’s a game called fortnite.
And here I was about to be delighted that one of my favorite words had made it to the states
I looked at the headline quickly and misread the spelling so on first glance I thought… “hmmm… there are people marketing themselves as short term coaches to coach students for important events two weeks in the future… cool.”
That can’t be true. At least I hope its fake news!
In Bellevue, Washington, parents hire tutors to help their kids test into the district’s gifted and talented program. Consequently, the program is full of extremely stressed out kids, many of whom aren’t qualified to be there.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/01/12/more-people-watch-esports-than-x-dont-get-here-basics/1017054001/
esports are a thing, and among the other professions responding is the legal field.
My older son sometimes watches people play these video games. Sigh.
When my son was taking the Officer Candidate School test for the Navy, he also took the Aviation test, because he’d heard it was an interesting experience. As he described it, it was very much like a video game. They give you ear phones and the tell the left and right ear different instructions which you have to then use your left and right and to accomplish. He said that being familiar with a joy stick was a huge help, but the multi-tasking aspect was also important. He apparently did well, as his recruiter kept asking him are you sure you don’t want to fly?
“In Bellevue, Washington, parents hire tutors to help their kids test into the district’s gifted and talented program. Consequently, the program is full of extremely stressed out kids, many of whom aren’t qualified to be there.”
And then there are parent who are desperate to gain residency in the district to the point that they own a house elsewhere and rent an apartment in the district just to have an in-district address, I guess it is cheaper than paying for private school. There’s a lot that is totally out of whack in that school district… 
Glad we never moved there.
To quote Forest Gump-- or, more accurately, his mom:
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
Some of the players of these video games that people are watching make big money. My younger D has a high school friend a year older than her that has been supporting himself since graduating college 3 years ago playing video games. This kid was a finance major. My other D has a friend that is a rap singer (is signed with a label and is getting a lot of airplay) that also plays in video game tournaments.
Esports are huge in Asia and making their way around the globe. Cineplex just bought a company called WorldGaming and there is Collegiate StarLeague gaining in popularity which I think may be college students here in the states. And yes the players make money. They are getting sponsors so the money will likely increase with viewership.
Think the biggest hurdle they face with some demographics is respectability. But that didn’t stop WWE.
no. way.
Someone said “Wow” and the first thing I thought was World of Warcraft.
It’s a huge subculture among the younger set. Both sons (24 and 19) play some, watch Twitch, form “friendships” that otherwise would not happen.
I half expect to never have grandchildren.
I used to think gaming was an absolute waste of time. However, the fact that people like to game, and many like to watch it, will enable one of my sons to become wealthy before he is 30. So…maybe not such a waste of time after all!
There is a test called the cogscreen aeromedical edition that a number of airlines are using to weed people out for hiring, they also use it to check for possible neurological dysfunction. If you were a gamer, I am sure that you would do far better than someone who isn’t. It’s reaction time, using a computer screen, etc. I feel that my kids would score a lot higher than I would. The funny thing is that if you score in the bottom 4 percentile as a pilot, they think you might have cognitive damage, though the same score gets you in the 50 percentile of non-pilots.
Moral of the story…gaming can help you get or keep a job. I’ve been doing a little bit of quick reaction games on my cellphone, and I feel like it’s helping me.
Connecticut has a HS e-sports league. They tested the idea with 15 schools across the state, with a final championship at UConn, and UConn offered scholarships to the winners.